A Ghost's Tale
by lilnicky21
Summary: Oneshot. Twenty years after the destruction of Lord Voldemort, Sir Nicholas tells the tale of what really happened...


_Disclaimer: nope, don't own it.  
Rated PG13 for content and that's just to be safe… _

A Ghosts Tale

Sir Nicholas walked –ehm- _floated _though the halls of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It was a blistery on day October 31st and most of the students were down in the great hall hours before the feast, playing wizard chess or exploding snaps. As he made his way down to the great hall for the Halloween Feast he noticed a group of second and first years sitting on the steps of the grand staircase all huddled together. Their heads leaned in as one of the second years whispered secrets. Curiosity is much apart the life of a ghost as water is apart of the life of a cat. The cat avoids water at all costs but once in a while it falls in the Black Lake.

Sir Nicholas hovered above the group of children hearing snatches of the conversation. Granted, it wasn't really dropping eaves on the students. More like the gathering of information. False information if Sir Nicholas had anything to say.

"...so then when he pointed his wand at you know who and shouted the killing curse," Tommy Perks was saying, exaggerating his fib with his hands. "Great tongs of flame poured out all red and hot and struck you know who in the face. It melted and then he exploded-."

"That's a lie, Tom! That's not what my daddy said. He said lightning came from the sky to strike you know who. Merlin must have had enough of him," shouted a small girl with oddly bushy hair and large front teeth.

"Shove off, Weasley. What do you know about anything other then school work?"

"A lot more then you, Perks!"

The two second years glared at each other, silently daring the other one to make the first move. The first years looked on in dread. A small girl with mousey blond hair and large eyes looked up. She smiled slowly and pointed up.

"Look! It's Nearly Headless Nick! He can settle this!"

Sir Nicholas froze. It wasn't the Basilisk type freezing either, it was the type of freezing when seven pairs of eyes turn upon you all at once when you have been attempting to –ehm- _gather information_. All at once there was an uproar of enthusiasm, but one voice stood out against all the others. An eights voice.

"No! What could a ghost know of the Final Battle? Nothing! Could he even go outside the castle walls? No!"

Sir Nicholas sighed. He never liked that girl. She was an exact replica of her father while he attended this school.

"What do you want Malfoy? Going to try and get us into trouble again?" Bushy haired Samantha Weasley taunted. "Go crawl back to your table, Slytherin!"

"Ohhh, has the weasel grown a tongue?" Jessica Malfoy sneered in a way which brought Sir Nicholas to remember a number of such conflicts involving the children's parents.

"Go kiss a snake, you snake!" The mousey blond said fiercely.

Sir Nicholas really couldn't take any more of this type of fencing. It was boring and there were more important things to discuss. He held himself up to his full height and rolled his head off of his neck. Two first years, muggle born by the looks of it, screamed. He smiled for it never failed to gain attention and was much more pleasant then walking though them. The settled his head on his shoulders properly and cleared his throat.

"Now then. How about I tell you what exactly happened that night." He nodded to the Malfoy girl. "You are quite correct when you say I am unable to cross the walls of this estate, Jessica, but what you fail you know is that after the final battle, Harry Potter came here, to the school, to nurse his wounds. We all know that in the end he succumbed to his injuries and perished. This is the story he told me.

XXX

It was cold. The coldest October day Sir Nicholas has seen for over one hundred years. The school had been evacuated two weeks before when the war began. The halls were filled with silence, and emptiness. The only living things were the house elves and Mrs. Norris. Even Peeves the friendly poltergeist was quiet, floating somewhere up in the astronomy tower. The magical portraits shifted nervously from frame to frame. It was a tense day. Something big was going to happen. Every magical being who could think for itself could feel that in this final hour, everything would be decided. One being knew what was going to happen. It's a well known fact that magic changes a place. For the better or the worst, magic changes everything. After hundreds of years being the school subjected to bouts of uncontrolled and accidental happenings by young witches and wizards, the very walls have developed a personality. It's a very old and slow personality, like that of an ancient Buddha master. Years after exploring this new found mentality, Hogwarts began to control the wards and spells placed on it. It gained control of the wards but because it loved the children playing in its halls, never once had it betrayed the headmistress or headmaster of the time. Never once, except now. Someone was trying to apparate into the very walls of the castle. Sir Nicholas could feel the tension of the spells flex to repel the intruder. There was nothing remarkable about that. It happens four of five times a year. What was remarkable was the fact that the castle lowered the wards in time for a seventeen year old boy with pasty white skin and black hair appear out of thin air. He collapsed painfully on his side. His robes were torn and he had terrible gashes across his skin. A groan escaped his lips and Sir Nicholas came back to his senses long enough to call for the house elves.

It took all of ten minutes to get the boy into the infirmary and placed in a warm bed. Dobby, a house elf oddly dedicated to this particular wizard, was laying bandages on the wounds. No words were spoken for that time until he finally looked up into Sir Nicolas' pearly face.

"Sir Nick, everything is gone." He shook his head. "Everything. There is nothing left for me now. I did it. I killed him, and I'm sorry I had." Sir Nicholas was shocked at this revelation. The boy really did go through hell.

"Harry, you did a grand thing that no body else could have. You saved the entire wizarding community."

"For now, maybe. Nothing is forever. When will the next dark wizard come and try to enslave everyone?"

No, Harry. Nothing is forever. Nothing lasts. There will be countless wizards who disrupt our peace and even some humans who will achieve the notice of us. But that is what life is. The constant struggle between good and evil is what life is about."

Harry rolled over into his pillow and snorted a sound that did not hold even a teaspoon of humour in it. "And I thought I was cynical. Your worse then my god father was…"

Sir Nicholas smiled sadly at his display. The boy was in pieces and he was afraid that no one could put him back together again. "Harry? What happened at your parents' house? Everyone knows the events leading up to it but what happened away from their eyes?"

He looked at the ghost, his eyes filled with such torment that Sit Nicholas wished to see the blunted axe once more instead of facing those ghastly eyes. He shook his head. "I wasn't expecting it, Sir Nick. I never imagined the house would be so destroyed… the frame was still intact and so were the outside walls. The inside was one large room under the stars. The upstairs floor was completely demolished but the stairs were still intact like an unhealthy bone protruding through the skin of an arm." He began to cry gently, obviously thinking of the fateful night in which he survived. "H-he was there. Vol-demort was there, just standing there. He was dressed in the same black robe he wore the night he was resurrected.

"'So, Harry, this is the end. The best wizard shall live.' He says. He held up his wand and pointed it at the stars. 'This is your chance, boy, to truly revenge your parents' death. You have a choice. My time is over, I know that. If you can't defeat me then every other power hungry or revenge crazed wizard out there will try. I cannot fend them all off. I am old and my soul is shattered thanks to you and your little friends. But think, boy. You could take my place. You are young and strong. You have suffered at the hands of many and have been the center of ridicule and slander. Bring my flea bitten soul into yourself. Welcome me and we shall live forever in power!' He shouted and the dark mark appeared in the sky.

"I have to tell you, Sir Nick, I was sorely tempted to accept the offer. I didn't want to fight him any more. He understood! He was the only one who understood anything I was going though! Yes! He caused my pain but he could end it. I didn't want to be the hero any more. I didn't want to have anyone else die to save me! So I saved me! I agreed! 'Will it hurt?' I asked. He said, 'No, there will be nothing but bliss and eternity.' He pulled in a witch into the room. She was bound and the hood of her clock was covering her face. I couldn't see her! I didn't know! He levitated her to me and dropped her at my feet. 'Hold her.' He says, 'hold her and feel her life leave her body.' I held her! In my very arms, I held her! I should have known then, at that moment my arms wrapped around her small frame."

Harry shook as sobs raped his body. There was a long pause where Sir Nicholas couldn't do anything but listen intently at the shuddering gasps coming from the boy who lived. Time passed by and when Harry got himself under control again he continued. "Voldemort pointed his wand at her and said 'When her life leaves her my soul will split. I shall join with you and you must kill me instantly. We will then be together, for all time.' He spoke the incantation then yelled _avada kedavra. _I dropped the girl and shot the same curse at my long life enemy. He fell lifelessly on the ground. Immense pain ripped my skull in half. I knew at that time He joined me. I fell beside her, noticing for the first time her face. It was Ginny. I let my worst enemy kill my love. My love! She's dead, Sir Nicholas! She's dead and it's my fault! Voldemort knew this would happen! He must have known." Harry didn't break down again. He was past the point of crying. "I felt a deep dark satisfaction. I knew it was Him. He was happy that I was in pain, that I saw her die. He thought he was safe now. And thought hat I wouldn't destroy myself. If only he knew anything about me. He didn't really understand me at all. Facing him was the only thing I have been preparing for, for over a year. It was all I had been thinking of. So I used the curse I found in Snape's text book. I used it on myself." Harry started laughing hysterically. "I pointed my own wand at my chest and spoke the word, _sectumsempra_. I guess it wasn't meant to be used on the person casting the spell. It destroyed him and left me near death. I didn't die, however. After I came back to my senses, I heard people come near the broken house. I needed an escape and apparated to Hogwarts. I want to die within the only place I felt at home. So I shall, Sir Nick. I will die and with me shall die all the secrets I never confided to anyone. What secrets they are. I killed my best friend's sister and my love. Ginny, my poor Ginny. I'll see you soon, I promise. I'm so sorry, so very sorry I betrayed the wizarding world. Will they ever forgive me, Sir Nick? Will they ever see me as anything but a snivelling coward? I guess the sorting hat was right, I would have done well in slytherin."

XXX

"Harry spent the next short hours of his tormented life in silence. He spoke his share and didn't want anything more then to stare up at the ceiling, remember the times, earlier in the school when he actually had fun. He died with no audience other then one sad house elf and me. We watched over him. His last breath was given when the doors flew open to reveal Professor McGonagall closely followed by Ron and Hermione. They stopped on the thresh hold, staring at the boy as he lay dead in the hospital bed. Hermione fell against Ron clinging to him as she cried for the loss of their friend and the most wondrous wizard of the age. She cried for Harry Potter, the boy who lived."

The students looked at the Gryffindor ghost in shock. They knew his body was found in the school but they could never have guessed what took place.

Samantha whipped her eyes of tears and smiled suddenly. "What a tragic end! Mom and dad always tell us stories about the three of them. Harry, mom and dad were best friends. It really is sad." Her eyes welled up again and he groped her kerchief.

No one else could say anything. They all had parents who fought in the war, all of them except Jessica Malfoy. Her father or mother didn't fight; they stayed in hiding, unable to go against family or close friends. The horrors of that night lived with the parents but seemed to escape the children. They were taught the history but the true events were never accounted for. Sir Nicholas gave them an idea of the horror that existed and even the most obnoxious of them couldn't say anything. Maybe they could grow to respect the ultimate sacrifice given for them.

A dull _thong_ intoned though out the castle, calling all waylaid students to the Great Hall for the Halloween feast. The students stood without saying anything and left to their dinner. One mousey haired girl looked back and waved slightly at Sir Nicholas. The Doors closed behind her and blocked her from view. Halloween was a more reverend holiday then ever before, for on this day fell the anniversary of the death of a foul dark wizard and the downfall of another. Exactly twenty years ago tonight was when it all happened…

_Well thank you for reading. Please review and let me know what you think.  
LilNicky21 _


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